Health and Men

Midweek Madness | Audio Therapy

by Scott on March 25th, 2008

Wednesdays Midweek Madness

This is the first real segment of my Midweek Madness feature here at Healthandmen.com. Last week I just did a quick bit. Anyway this weeks midweek madness is all about Audio Therapy as I call it. I’m not a psychologist so I don’t know the real terminology for it. Audio Therapy to me is music. A lot of people find inspiration and a release in music. Depending on what type of mood your in will generally decide what type of music you will listen to. You don’t need to be a doctor to know that. When your happy, you listen to happy music, when your down or tired you have a tendency to listen to more depressing music or mellow love type songs. When your angry you may listen to heavy, angry sounding music or music that will put you in a better mood. Back to happy music.

What is “Happy” music? Happy music is whatever music you tend to listen to when you’re in a good mood and like I said in the first paragraph you may listen to music that is rebellious and angry sounding when your happy because that may be what makes you happy. For me I listen to heavy metal music whenever I’m in a good mood or bad. When I’m feeling tired or my ears need a rest I might listen to softer stuff like Pink Floyd or Led Zeppelin…sometimes even a little Marvin Gaye.

When I’m in a bad mood or the situation I’m in is upsetting me the last thing I want to hear is some pop garbage like Britney Spears or Good Charlotte or pretty much anything that is overly repetitive. I start getting even more frustrated acting like a child and mocking the music in a Southpark style voice and change the channel with a violent finger…and sometimes I just shut the radio off.

Can music be a psychological stimulator? I believe so and I’m sure a lot will agree. For instance I was on my way to work one day. Having left a little late and obviously stressed to start the day, I ran into a situation where I could feel a bit of road rage coming on. The cars in front of me was driving at the same speed as the car beside him in the right lane on a 4 lane highway. there was no way for me to get around him and I found it quite irritating. Everyone hates the left lane laggers and when your running late it doesn’t help the situation at all. On top of this I was listening to one of my favorite bands, Lamb Of God. If you know anything about Lamb Of God you would know that it’s not the most friendly sounding music and if some dumb-ass is already pissing you off then the music can be a catalyst. I honestly wanted to run the guy off the road but my sanity kept me from doing it for various reasons. One, I’m not a friggin nut-job and I would have caused more trouble than it was worth. Two, refer back to number one.

On to the other side of it, when a person goes through a rough time like a break up or loss of a loved one some music can either be inspiring making them think of the person in memory or sink them into a deeper depression which can ultimately lead to life changing or ending events. Add alcohol to these types of situations of anger or depression and it is a recipe for disaster. However if in a happy mood listening to music that makes you happy and drinking, it can be a great time too…you just may pay for it in the form of a hangover the next day.

Now you know those people that committed murder or violent crimes and someone blamed it on the music they listen to and some rock star gets sued? Let’s look at it from a different perspective. The people that do those kind of things already have problems before they committed those crimes and the music gets blamed when in reality the person could have had an abusive parent or relationship and the music he/she listened to was a stimulator in which the person found a release…but all time bombs explode sooner or later. People always look for somewhere to point their finger and controversial music is always in the line of site. I’m not saying that some music’s lyrics can’t be a part of the blame because a lot of people take songs lyrics and gimmicks serious and commit crimes. Back to my point that the person already had a problem to begin with that should have been recognized and help provided or proper guidance from a parent or someone that cared for them. It’s all in perception.

I hope I haven’t trailed off of the subject too much.

Music is one of God’s many great gifts right up there with Women…but like women, god made some music great like the fruits of heaven and some just downright pure evil…what you choose is up to you!

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POSTED IN: Mental Health